Polycarp Ministries

Being a Christian Studies major was a blast. It exposed me to so much truth and made me hungry not only to know truth, but also to teach it. College gave me a desire to teach others. It also prepared me to formulate and defend my opinions. I soon learned that the hot debate on campus was over Calvinism, and that one of my room mates was the leader of the Calvinist front. If you’re not familiar with the debate, email me and I’ll explain it to you. Therefore I was enrolled in the debate as well, and I loved every minute of it. I poured so much time and effort into Scripture study, history, theology, and loads of prayer because I was determined that I would not be proven wrong by ANYONE. I started in the con position, which pleased both of us, and allowed us to sharpen our rhetorical skills. However, as I studied to prove Calvinists wrong in their soteriology, I began to see that my arguments did not hold water.

My shallow theology was being broadened by my studies and I began to see the richness of God’s grace. After about 1.5 yrs I came to the conclusion that the Reformed argument was more in line with the early church than was the Arminian position. I realized that most baptists I knew were non-reformed, and as if that weren’t enough, few had any clue as to what Baptists have historically believed (the Baptist founders were mostly Calvinists). This problem could not be allowed to stand. I had a new goal in life: make all Baptists “go back” to historical Baptist/Reformed theology. For the remainder of my college career I fought hard to correct the “historical myopia” of my classmates, ministry friends, professors, and family. My methods were not always “seasoned with salt” and often fueled by pride rather than love. I made a lot of people mad, and gained the respect of a few others. Through the controversy, however, I gained a sense of identity and purpose. “If I could only get people to see that they are missing 500 years of Protestant Christian history/theology,” I would think to myself, “churches would be transformed and the world would see God’s grace for the depth and wonder it posesses.” Indeed.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 1st, 2005 at 12:57 am and is filed under My Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.